About Us
We exist to revolutionise mental health across Australia through access to exceptional mental health care and education.
David was a Major General in the Australian Army, retiring in 2019 after serving in Australia and abroad for 36 years.
Having witnessed first-hand the impacts of trauma and the profound effects on survivors, their families, and communities, David is determined to deliver meaningful and sustainable change.
Following his retirement, David was appointed through 2020 as the Senior Advisor (Defence Reform) to the Minister of Defence. He commenced providing strategic advice to corporate clients in early 2021, before joining the National COVID-19 Vaccination Taskforce as the national lead for vaccination rollout to Australia’s disability sector and aged care workers. Today he runs his own small business and is appointed as a Director on the Board of the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, and as an independent advisor to the Birdon Advisory Board.
With specialisation in logistics and a nearly a decade in senior military command appointments, David has deep experience in service delivery, commercial contracting, governance and risk management, complemented by high-level expertise in cultural and organisational change, reputation management, and managing relationships with Ministers, Government and regulatory agencies.
David joined the board in December 2018.
Directorships:
- Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation
Qualifications:
- Masters of Engineering (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University)
- Masters of Defence Studies (University of Canberra)
- Graduate Diploma of Strategic Studies (Australian Defence College)
- Post Graduate Diploma of Transportation Planning and Management (Cranfield University, United Kingdom)
- Bachelor of Professional Studies (University of New England)
- Graduate Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD)
Jace is a leading clinical psychologist, trauma specialist, mental health innovator and co-founder of Birchtree Group.
She has worked as a clinician across private and public health settings. Her work has included treatment of eating disorders, acute and general psychiatry and bereavement services.
Jace initially trained as a Registered Nurse and worked primarily in mental health and treatment programs for drug and alcohol addiction. Prior to opening Birchtree, Jace worked for 14 years as a psychologist within drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres, where she designed and co-ordinated a six-week residential rehabilitation program, with a focus on the treatment of complex trauma for women with histories of substance dependence.
She has completed intensive Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) training and subsequently co-ordinated the implementation of a 12 month out-patient DBT program. Jace has developed and delivered education programs to health services, NGO’s, professional colleagues, and lectured at the University of Sydney, UNSW and UTS within the postgraduate Clinical Psychology programs.
In 2018, Jace co-founded Birchtree Foundation as a charity in response to recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, to address the inequity in the availability of treatment services in rural and regional Australia.
Jace doesn’t accept the status quo and is loudly determined to (courageously) improve Australia’s mental health for the benefit of all. Innately a collaborator and connector, Jace invites others to join forces with the Birchtree team in reshaping Australia’s mental health system.
Qualifications:
- Masters of Clinical Psychology (University of New South Wales)
- Bachelor of Science (Psychology) (Hons) (University of New South Wales)
- Bachelor of Nursing (University of Technology, Sydney)
- Graduate Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD)
Professional Memberships:
- Australian Psychological Society
Sophie is a leading clinical psychologist, trauma specialist, mental health innovator and co-founder of Birchtree Group.
Sophie has over 20 years of clinical experience. She holds a Masters of Clinical Psychology and a PhD in Child and Adolescent Psychology.
Understanding families, relationships and the day-to-day challenges of both growing up and raising children underpin her clinical work. A passion for child advocacy has led Sophie to focus her clinical work on helping people heal from the trauma of childhood difficulties and trauma and to assist people to become a more peaceful integrated self and return to the person they were born to be.
In her work with parents and couples, Sophie seeks to support adults to interrupt the intergenerational impact of childhood trauma. Sophie has extensive experience working with adults, children and adolescents, parents and families at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, with Sydney’s homeless community, school communities, and in private practice. Sophie specialises in helping both individuals and families to recover from trauma, anxiety and depression, eating disorders, grief and loss, addictions, relationship issues, workplace and childhood bullying, and childhood illnesses.
Together with Jace Cannon-Brookes, Sophie co-founded Birchtree Centre in 2015 to address the pressing need to provide a place for adult survivors of childhood trauma to be welcome, held and heal. Sophie is a passionate educator and runs regular workshops and training for clinicians and allied health professionals on complex trauma. She co-founded Birchtree Foundation in 2018 to provide trauma support and care to regional communities and to conduct cutting edge research to impact and interrupt the outcomes of childhood trauma.
Qualifications:
- PhD (University New South Wales)
- Masters Clinical Psychology (University of Melbourne)
- Bachelor Science (Psychology), Hons 1 (University New South Wales)
- Graduate Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD)
Professional Memberships:
- Australian Psychological Society
- Australian Clinical Psychology Association
- Australian Health Practitioners’ Registration Agency – Clinical Psychology Endorsement
Sarah is a business and marketing executive whose career has spanned Financial Services, Management Consulting and Technology for the past 20 years.
She has held management positions at ANZ, Bankers Trust, Zurich Financial Services and Westpac. She made the transition to Technology in 2007 by joining Red Ant Design where she continues to hold a Business Management position. Sarah is passionate about providing all Australians who are experiencing the effects of complex trauma the chance to thrive.
Sarah joined the board in 2018.
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Business (International Marketing) (UTS)
- Graduate Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD)
Sinclair is the former CEO of the Westpac Foundation for Westpac Banking Corporation.
Appointed as a Director on 24 August 2012. Sinclair is the former CEO of the Westpac Foundation for Westpac Banking Corporation. During his time at Westpac, Sinclair pioneered and led Westpac’s strategic alliance with Many Rivers Microfinance. He is an experienced commercial banker and business owner. Sinclair is an experienced commercial banker and was the founding CEO of Westpac’s Davidson Institute.
Dr Sophie Reid is a passionate clinician-researcher who firmly believes that research makes her a better clinician, and being a clinician makes her a better researcher.
Sophie is leading Birchtree in focusing research on trauma healing, rather than trauma pathology. Sophie has raised over $1m in research grants, conducted large state-wide randomized controlled trials of novel innovative ways to enhance mental health and well-being. She holds current affiliate academic positions at University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney. Sophie enjoys the creative and collaborative energy of running large research teams and supervising Higher Degree research students.
Lenka is a Research Officer at Birchtree, where she is designing a project focused on developing and evaluating an integrative model of trauma healing.
She also works with Childlight (East Asia and Pacific Hub), hosted at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), contributing to research on child sexual abuse under the leadership of Professor Michael Salter.
Lenka completed her PhD at UNSW in 2022. Her work reflects a strong commitment to addressing sexual violence and gender inequality, and she brings expertise in research methodology and quantitative methods.
Abbey holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Criminology and Criminal Justice, as well as a Bachelor of Health Science (Honours) in Psychology from Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
Her academic and professional background reflects a strong commitment to mental health, trauma-informed care, and community wellbeing.
As a research assistant at AUT, she contributed to projects exploring help-seeking behaviours for mental health and addiction support, with a particular focus on how various forms of stigma influence individuals’ experiences and access to care. This included work on the development of a help-seeking measurement tool aimed at improving early intervention and support pathways.
Outside of research, Abbey has supported individuals in crisis through roles as a support worker with Victim Support New Zealand and as a helpline worker for Anxiety New Zealand. She currently works as a community services worker with Wayside Chapel, supporting people at risk of homelessness or in crisis, as well as project management for an Empowerment Self Defence initiative with Birchtree Foundation.
Her work bridges academic research and frontline service delivery, driven by a strong interest in trauma, addictions, and creating accessible, person-centred systems of support.